Apple has long held the position \u201cthe customer is not our product.\u201d This means that Apple is not looking to collect user information and sell it to the highest bidder like some other companies. It is part of the reason…<\/b>
\nApple has long held the position \u201cthe customer is not our product.\u201d This means that Apple is not looking to collect user information and sell it to the highest bidder like some other companies. It is part of the reason its products command high premiums \u2014 iPhone sales are not being partially subsidized by Big Data firms wanting your information.
During a speech at a privacy conference in Brussels, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that personal information is being \u201cweaponized against us with military efficiency [creating a] data-industrial complex.\u201d
\u201cPlatforms and algorithms that promised to improve our lives can actually magnify our worst human tendencies. Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen divisions, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false. This crisis is real. It is not imagined, or exaggerated, or crazy.\u201d
Cook was careful to not call anyone out specifically, but recent news of political ad targeting and the Cambridge Analytica scandal brought at least a couple names to mind.
The Apple boss also applauded Europe for its recent implementation of the GDPR privacy regulations. \u201cIt is time for the rest of the world \u2026 to follow [Europe\u2019s] lead,\u201d said Cook. \u201cWe at Apple are in full support of comprehensive federal privacy laws in the United States.\u201d
Cook believes that lawmakers should come up with laws governing privacy as a fundamental human right. He listed four rights of concern: \u201cthe right to have personal data minimized; the right for users to know what data is collected on them; the right to access that data; and the right for that data to be kept securely.\u201d
These do not seem like unreasonable requests, but Big Data proponents argue that too much regulation stifles innovation \u2014 as if allowing consumers to have their privacy is going to keep them from coming up with ideas. This notion is hogwash at best. However, Cook thinks it is worse than that.
\u201cThis notion isn’t just wrong, it’s destructive,\u201d he said. \u201cTechnology\u2019s potential is and always must be rooted in the faith people have in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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